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Jim Halpert and Stanley Hudson aren’t the only people who feel that meetings makethem stupider. As a matter of fact, anew study from Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute found that most meetings actuallymake us dumber. This comes after scientists discovered that interacting within a groupcan lower your intelligence. In this study, volunteers were broken upinto small groups and matched according to their IQ. Firsttheir cognitive abilities were measured with basic problem-solving queries. Everyone didrelatively fine in that scenario, but it all changed once the scientists publicized thescores. With the results known to all, the subjects were again tested. In the secondround, there was a significant decline in scores. With knowledge thatothers in the group performed better, the subjects' cognitive abilities declinedsignificantly. They were monitored with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and theresearchers noted that performance of cognitive functions was clearly tied to socialprocessing. So much for not caring what others think. Clearly, it’sa big part of the thought process -- so much so that it even impedes it. Continue Reading

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